Posts Tagged With: Jackson Brundage

One Tree Hillhas really delivered the dramatic goods thus far in the 9th season! Only 2 episodes in and the dramatic tension is as huge as the boulder chasing Dr. Jones in the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the season premier, Chris Keller returned to Tree Hill to oversee Red Bedroom Records for Haley and began producing Alex Duprey’s (Jana Kramer) “What I Love About Your Love.” They got off to a hilarious start with Chris telling Alex point-blank that her song was “crappy.” In reality, he felt her acoustic track just needed to be produced. After laying down the other instrument tracks overnight, he played a produced version of her song for her, much to her surprise. Alex decides to take Chris’ advice and go on tour and consequently leave behind Chase. So for now, Alex Duprey has left Tree Hill and possibly this is Jana Kramer’s exit from the series. We shall find out later this season if her character returns or not.

Jamie is stoked having his grandpa around.

Nathan arrived home to find his father Dan Scott temporarily staying under his roof. Episode 901 ended excitingly with Nathan walking into his daughter Lydia’s room to find Dan holding and cuddling her. Nathan was not happy and long-time fans of the show who have watched this strained father-son relationship unfold over the seasons certainly understand why. It creates an awkward situation for the characters and wonderful dramatic tension for the audience. Jamie (Jackson Brundage) loves having his Grandpa Dan around. Haley and particularly Nathan arent’ thrilled about it. Haley agreed to let Dan stay in their house until Nathan returned home from traveling for his and Clay’s sports agency Fortitude. Now that Nathan is back, he wants Dan out.

Brooke and Julian are enjoying/suffering through the trials and tribulations of early parenthood replete with sleepless nights seemingly without end. However, one morning in the beginning of this episode, instead of the sound of baby cries, they wake up to the sound of…well, nothing! Alarmed, they jump out of bed and storm into the kitchen to find Brooke’s mother Victoria (the wonderful Daphne Zuniga) tending to the twins and making breakfast for everyone. It is a warm familial scene Julian and Brooke stumble upon, one Brooke wryly remarks was wanting in her childhood. Brooke is soon off to meet her father at the golf course for what she believes will be some quality father/daughter time and a discussion of their future business partnership in Baker Man baby clothing.

Clay was supposed to do the traveling the next time around. The plan was for Clay to go to Europe to look for potential athletes. With Clay’s drug addiction and ongoing sleepwalking problem, he is not in any position to be traveling far from home. So once again, Nathan is going to have to leave for an extended period of time. As the episode ends with Nathan driving out of sight, Dan and Jamie are standing on the front porch watching him leave. “I thought you had left,” Jamie says. “Don’t worry Jamie,” Dan replies. “I’m not going anywhere.”

What is Dan up to? He appears to have transformed into a much more caring person from the Dan Scott of earlier seasons, particularly since he murdered Keith in season 3. Is Dan up to something? This episode ends with a close-up on Dan with a knowing look in his eye, as though he knows Nathan is not going to be back any time soon. How does he know that? Has he conveniently arranged for someone to detain Nathan from returning home soon? If so, is it because he really is a nicer guy now but is doing what he feels he has to do in order to be in his grandchildren’s lives? We shall find out soon!

What I particularly enjoyed in this episode were the scenes between Dan, Nathan, Haley, and Jamie in the Scott household. Dan is back this season and I am stoked about that because as I mentioned in my review of episode 901 and my article about An Evening with One Tree Hill in L.A., Dan Scott is one of my favorite characters on One Tree Hill. He always adds a compelling dynamic tension to the drama in each plot that he plays a significant part in. As Mark Schwahn mentioned at the L.A. premiere, we will be seeing a lot of Dan this season. I also enjoyed the scenes between Victoria and Brooke quite a bit. They have been great to watch each episode and it was fascinating watching their characters go from an adversarial relationship to a happy mother/daughter relationship over since season 5. If any of my readers are fans of the show or just want to share their thoughts about this episode or the season thus far, please feel free to comment in the comment section below!

Last Thursday evening (Jan. 5, 2012), fans of the CW television show One Tree Hill were treated to an advance screening of the premiere episode of season 9 (Episode 901-“Know This, We’ve Noticed”). In attendance were Mark Schwahn, creator of the show and writer and director of the 9th season’s first episode, and most of the core cast members. The event took place at the Arclight Hollywood theater. Most of the audience of fans acquired their tickets through various contests on Facebook and Twitter. There was a standby line for those without tickets. Happily, everyone in standby was admitted to the theater. The audience was even treated to free popcorn and soft drinks. The theater staff waited until everyone was inside and situated before beginning the event. Then, the cast entered and took their seats. In attendance from the cast were Paul Johansson (Dan Scott), Bethany Joy Galeotti (Haley), Tyler Hilton (Chris Keller), Sophia Bush (Brooke), Robert Buckley (Clay), Stephen Colletti (Chase), Shantel VanSanten (Quinn), Jackson Brundage (Jamie), and Lee Norris (Mouth). Mark Schwahn gave a few brief introductory remarks and shout outs to executive produce Joe Davola and music supervisor Lindsey Wolfington, also in attendance. If you have enjoyed the music on the show, you can thank Lindsey Wolfington. As music supervisor, she is responsible for most of the tracks you hear in each episode and she does an awesome job. The theater lights dimmed and for the first time, we proceeded to watch a new episode of One Tree Hill on a movie screen instead of a television screen.

As of this writing, the episode has not aired so I will not give away any significant details. (Preview clips may be viewed on the show’s official website.) However, it is a riveting, intense, episode and no one who watches this show will want to miss it. The first 3 minutes of the episode are jaw-dropping. I thought to myself, “What are we in for this season?! How did the characters end up in whatever situation it is that they are in?!” We shall find out in the coming weeks. Of course, the print of the episode looked great too. The Arclight theater takes care to make sure that features are screened in their proper aspect ratio and that the sound is perfect. Once the episode was over, there was thunderous applause. Mark Schwahn and the cast then took their seats in front of the screen and proceeded to answer audience questions and share anecdotes about working on the show for close to an hour and a half.

Dan Scott (Paul Johansson) and Chris Keller (Tyler Hilton) will get a lot of screen time this season. They are in most of the episodes of season 9 according to Mark Schwahn. I’m really happy about this. I like all of the characters on this show but the Dan Scott character is always compelling because I can’t wait to hear what he is going to say or do when he enters a scene. After the Q&A was over and the cast proceeded to leave the theater, Mark Schwahn had a raffle and gave away close to a dozen copies of the recently released DVD boxset of One Tree Hill Season 8. I didn’t win but I already have the season 8 boxset. I had a great time and I want to thank Mark Schwahn and the cast and crew for the inspiring drama they have created each season. Schwahn remarked that this 9th season is his favorite of the show. View photos of the “An Evening with One Tree Hill in L.A.” on One Tree Hill’s Facebook page. I have included a couple of my own photos here on this page and several more in part 2 of this article.